breakfast

After months of hiding behind the clouds, Mr. Sun is finally out. It means like the blossoms starting to come out of hibernation, I’d be enthusiastic to go to the groceries and cook more. Like every time I pick the kids up we would buy a loaf of bread or two before going home. There’s that Billa store near the school where we get our stuff and at the end of the month that’s also where I would take a free recipe magazine from the cashier stand for cooking inspiration. I’ve long wanted to try the recipes but I never really did until last week. This fried eggs on mango-leek-cashew salad was just so attractive to pass up and to not share so here’s my first attempt at following a recipe by the book…errr magazine.

For the salad, wash leeks and cut into 1cm pieces. If you’re using fresh mangoes, peel them up and cube, if you’re using canned — not really recommended albeit simpler – just cut them to cubes. Mince garlic. Heat up a teaspoon of olive oil on pan and put in the leeks, saute for a minute and remove from heat.

Remove the remaining olive oil from pan and save it for later. Wash the lemons with warm water, dry up and grate a bit of the peel into a small dish. Squeeze the juice. Combine 1 tablespoon soy sauce, a pinch of chili, half of the minced garlic, honey and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. Meanwhile, mix leeks, mango and cashew and sprinkle with salt to taste. Combine with soysauce mix.

For the sunny-side up eggs, put vegetable oil in pan and let warm on medium heat. If you have those metal egg rings, put 4 of them on pan and break each egg on one…fry the eggs for about 3 minutes.

While cooking the eggs combine remaining soy sauce (3 tablespoons), chili, brown sugar, sesame oil and remaining garlic and cook for a minute in a separate pan. Set aside. Remove the eggs carefully from the rings…wash the coriander and snip into small stalks.

Arrange the leek salad in four glass containers, put an egg on top of each and drizzle with the cooked say sauce concoction. Garnish with coriander and serve.

Parsley may be substituted for coriander.

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Breakfasts. They’re supposedly the foundation of everyday and yet I fail to prepare one that would energize the kids, hubby and myself. It has been my goal to wake up earlier so I can have all the time to make a decent meal. I fail…all the time. The easiest I can prepare are toasts which the kids normally like with just butter. For hubby an egg and coffee with the toasts would suffice. So to spice those bread on some days, here’s my cinnamon toast for easy fix. Four ingredients and a toaster and here’s your comfort food.

What you need:

Bread

Butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

4 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

1. For the bread, choose ones that doesn’t have butter in them already. I find these cheap loaves from the grocery across our place, they’re at 0.40 cents. They’re not the best tasting bread when eaten alone but when made into cinnamon toasts or spread with nutella, they’re the best. So get some slices off for buttering.

2. Toast a few pieces on low…better use the grill-toaster than the pop-ups. While waiting, mix brown sugar and ground cinnamon. I prefer brown sugar but granulated would do. Take the bread slices out, be careful: they’re hot! Spread butter and sprinkle some of the sugar-cinnamon mix.

My kids love to eat and have a good time. However, we all love traveling too. Imagine what hubby would search for each time we travel. Hotel with ample amenities to keep the kids entertained, a pool for them to enjoy when it’s too hot, a park or playground just near the hotel for them to unwind and of course, yummy food. They enjoy breakfast buffets just like during our Paris trip.

Thankfully the chain of Victoria hotels offers various restaurants with a serving of tea & coffee, pastries, hot chocolate, fruits & fruit juices, yoghurt, cereals, pancakes, breads, grilled tomatoes, baked beans, sausages and of course: bacon and eggs. If we find ourselves visiting my new nephew in Canada, we’re sure to check out one of their chains.

Early morning yummy smell. That’s what woke up the kids on a Saturday morning. The weather hasn’t been so cooperative – summer at 14 degrees? It’s not really that bad…I’m not really a summer person. I enjoy 18-22° more than sunny 30° or up. I’d prefer that too over rainy days and especially when I’m staying at home finishing translation jobs.

So along with the rainy and cool atmosphere I baked these yummy breakfast treats. Normally they’d prefer doughnuts, croissants and semmels but they wouldn’t say no to cupcakes either.

My youngest loves choco bits on top of his so I made these with especially loads of them. He’s been allergic to cow’s milk as a baby so he grew up having soya milk…since he turned five the doctor gave a go for cow’s milk which he loves so he would often request some. That mug, by the way, was one he designed at the kindergarten.

For the recipe, I’m still using my old recipe and here..I’m reposting it.

Note: If you don’t have self-rising flour you can make them at home. For each cup of all-purpose flour, you need to add 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

How to:

1. Preheat oven to or 390°F or 200°C. Line your muffin tins with cupcake papers, about 24.
2. In a bowl put in the flours, stir to combine and set aside.
3. In your mixing bowl, mix the butter with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
4. Add sugar gradually and beat until fluffy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating milk or buttermilk and vanilla.
7. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overmix.
8. Spoon the batter into the cupcake papers, filling about 3/4 full. Drop in a teaspoonful of chocolate chips to each before putting them in the oven.
9. Bake in a 350°F or 180°C oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick/cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
10. Cool the cupcakes in the tin for 15 minutes.
11. Remove cakes from the tins and put on a wire rack before icing.
12. Ice with your favorite frosting/icing or serve as is.

Preparation Time: 30 mins
Cooking: 20-25 mins
Total Time: 55 mins

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I’m glad I was somehow able to transfer this blog’s content to my other blog, really thought I’d lose everything. I just decided to keep this blog for recipes. Some of my entries that I transferred included a write up about taho (soy bean curd with caramel and tapioca pearls) – a childhood breakfast favorite.

I’ve always enjoyed taho with my older sister. We would hurriedly get our glasses, mine would be stout but big, hers would be thin and taller…it doesn’t represent our figures later on though (not sure lol). We would beg for extra caramel and tapioca pearls all the time…

When we went home last year, I learned that taho is hubby’s favorite too. I never knew this before because, well, there aren’t taho vendors around. It was one morning in our QC home when hearing the familiar call of “tahoooooooo” that he woke up and hurriedly sent me down, made me buy 40pesos of taho! Had I grabbed more coins I’d buy more.

Coming back to Vienna, there’s no way that we can buy taho from a vendor. Thanks to fellow foodies, I found recipes about how to make taho…the moment I got hold of silken tofu…I made taho immediately.

Ingredients:

silken tofu
tapioca pearls
caramel (sugar melted in water and heated)

How to:

1. Cook tapioca per package direction.

2. Dissolve sugar in water and cook to caramel consistency.

2. Put silken tofu in a microwave safe container. Heat up 10 minutes.

3. Combine all three ingredients and serve hot or cold.

Voila! Taho in minutes! I’d surely be making this today, it’s our 10th year together after all.

“The best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” goes Fanny Ferns’s quote. Jokingly, Robert Byrne believes “Anybody who believes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach flunked geography.” 😀 The last quote always makes me laugh. Thinking of it it should have been biography instead of geography but the author was obviously suggesting something else, which I wouldn’t want to talk about.

I can attest to the truth of the first quote though. My hubby has a penchant for spicy dishes which I strongly oppose. If I’m the boss in here I would rather not cook anything spicy…So what I’d do is to cook specially for him, meaning I cook first for the kids or set aside something for them before putting in the chillies. Sometimes I just serve pepper and chillies for the boss to garnish his dish with. He’s always thankful. 🙂

-Unadulterated silken tofu-

I did mention sometime ago that hubby loves Taho (soybean curd) and that one time during our vacation I had to follow the Magtataho 2 blocks from our house just to buy him some (I was below the house and he was upstairs so I had to go lol). Gosh, that Manong walked so fast! I bought 40pesos worth of taho for him that morning and another 40pesos two days after.

Oggi of I can do that! mentioned in that post that she made taho at home which got me excited. I had long planned to make some but the I’ll-do-that-tomorrow attitude finally brought me to today. 😀 I googled and the search page showed two of my favorite foodblogs…Kuya Vanjo’s Panlasong Pinoy and Weng’s Munchkin Mommy. I was surprised at how easy it seems, and it was! A few minutes later, I had my first homemade taho.

So all you need would be:

silken tofu
cooked tapioca pearls
caramel

I cooked the tapioca pearls per package direction, caramelized sugar and heated up the tofu a little in the microwave oven…I topped the tofu afterwards with the first two ingredients and that’s it!

After dinner, I served hubby a bowl of taho which he surprisingly refused…so I set it aside and observed. He was so not in the mood and I thought it must be work. Around midnight though he asked where is the taho I made…this time he’s calmed down. So I served him the bowl again and he contentedly finished it…

Growing up in a tropical country, I have known mangoes, pineapples, papayas amd soursops earlier than apples, strawberries and oranges. Imagine a row of trees heavy with fruits that some would fall off the ground….well, it’s not so dreamy because it’s a farm, but that’ the kind of life I actually miss. Where I can own a garden and grow roses, tomatoes, forget me nots, basil, cucumber, and orchids. A view of pink, blue, red and vibrant green when I look at my kitchen window in the morning…perfect!

Coming back to reality now,I miss those fruits I enjoyed as a kid, where I am now they are considered exotic as were apples and peaches in my country. The other day, I tried to make this healthy breakfast, oatmeal with cinnamon apples…despite having allergies with the fruit that came about 2 years ago. My throat gets itchy when I eat them, same goes for my 2 older kids. We all have allergies with Steinobst, fruits that have big seeds in them, I think, like pear, peaches, apples, nectarines…and an odd case, kiwi. My daughter’s lips turn red when she eats them…which looks good anyway. 😀

So here’s a recipe I adapted somewhere, which would yield servings for 3.

1. Combine the water, apple juice, and apples in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, and stir in oats and cinnamon. Return to a boil, then reduce heat to low, and simmer until thick, about 3 minutes. Spoon into serving bowls, and pour milk over the servings.

P.S. I did eat a few bites of apples and a few minutes later not only my throat was itchy but my eyes too. It was so good that I forgot about the allergies for a while haha….but I will surely remove the apples next time…. *sigh*